St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-06-05
The Victim Was Thrown From the Roof
OF a Tenement After BEING
Stabbed to Death,
And For While it Was Thought He
Came to Bis End Through
an Accident.
Later Developments, However, Show
That He Was Deliberately Killed
"A Remarkable Case.
Special to the Globe.

Killed Matthew Norwood, he will have
accumulated enough material for a
novel. The dead body was found in an
alley at the back of 226 West Thirtieth
street, three days ago, and the subse-
quent investigations of the police have
revealed story that involves both ro-
nance of brutal sort and novelty in
murder. The body lay in a pool of
blood, and the right hand clutched
tightly fragment of woman's sacque.
The police made perfunctory inquiries,
and came to the conclusion that Nor
wood had accidentally fallen from a
thlrd-story window. But when the cor
oner's surgeon came to make an exami-
nation he found deep and fatal wound
in the left groin. 1t was a stab from
long and sharp knife, but the outer and
under clothing on the body had not been
cut III the slightest way. In addition to
this wound the skull had been broken
i'll the fall to the ground, and there were
two fractures in the right leg. This
happened three days ago, but the ex-
PLANTATION is just out. The vicinity of
the murder is tenement district.
Buildings are crowded closely together,
and not only is the street lined with
lofty houses, but the space usually de-
voted to clothes yards in the rear is oc-
cupied by smaller, cheap houses and
factories. A narrow alley leads from
ThIrtieth street directly through the
building numbered 226, and the court at
the rear is nearly filled by suspender
70
both 226 and 22S clothes lines on the pull
ley plan run tO-the factory wall. When
the police came to make closer inyesti-
CATION they found that one of these
clothes lines had been broken and the
puily wrenched from its staple in the
factory building. 1t. was the line that
ran from the second story of 226, and it
had been suspended directly over the
spot where Norwood'S body was found
in the morning. The occupant of the
tenement from which this line ran is
A BARBER NAMED BURRILL.
1t was from him that the suggestion
came that untangled the mystery sur
rounding NOrwood'S death. The de-
ceased was not tenant of the building.
although he was generally known there,
but not by name, as the husband of
woman named Virginia Kelly, whose
room is just above Burrill's apartments.
Norwood has wife who lives within
speaking distance of the scene of the
murder. Her room is in tenement
house on West Twenty-ninth street,
and nearly in the same back yard as 226
West Thirtieth street. He had not
lived with her for many months. Bur-
rlll knew something about him. because
he had formerly employed Norwood as
a barber. For year or more Norwood
had been out of work, and leading a dis
solute life. He had met the Kelly
woman, and discovered in her a sweet
heart of his younger days. They formed
an attachment for one another, and Nor
wood abandoned his wife to live with
Mrs. Kelly. Early ON the evening of the
murder Norwood was seen to enter the
building 226, and go up the three flights
of stairs to Virginia Kelly's room. At
about half-paSt he came down stairs
and went out. Not long after man
with gray hair, short and stout, came i'm
and went to the same room. What be-
came of him is not yet known. Nor
wood returned at midnight, or very
soon after that hour. The events that
followed Immediately can only be sur
missed, but such are the circumstances
that nearly all who have studied the
case agree upon a theory in which the
points open to doubt are trivial details.
The Kelly'S room is mere closet. The
only furniture it contains is bed.
chair and a battered bureau. There
would not be room for anything addi-
tIonal, except possibly a small chair.
Two empty whisky bottles stood on a
rude mantel near the window when
your correspondent visited the place
this evening. There was no lamp or
candle or other means of obtaining
light. Norwood undoubtedly entered
the room,
SUPPOSING THAT HIS MISTRESS WAS
THERE.
and began to diSrObe, preparatory to
retiring. By the time he had loosened
his garments he discovered that the
room was empty. AT that moment
Kelly entered. She had been on the
roof with her gray,,haired companion
and hearing Norwood come upstairs had
run down to her room in fright. lest
her infidelity should be discovered. 1t
was her plan to make Norwood believe
that she had gone to the roof alone for a
breath OF fresh air, a common enough
thing for the tenants of the building TO
do, and while talking with him her com
panion would slip down the seuttie
stairs and make his escape unobserved.
Norwood, however, was nnder the infIu-
ence of liquor and irritable. His sus-
PiOioii Moo CACllCu Wy ltI uldIlIGr ana
they immediately got into a violent al
tercatiOn. Norwood started for the roof
and saw the form of man descending
the stairs. He Immediately rushed at it
and the man retreated. Norwood and
Kelly followed the gray-haired man up-
stairs onto the roof, and a fight ensued
at once. A doubt exists as to
whether Kelly or her companion
stabbed Norwood, but one of them
did, and in the disarranged con
ble to do SO without cutting the cloth
must have proved almost instantly fatal,
bleeding profusely. Kelly and her COM
panion saw at once what they had done,
and quickly decided upon plan of ae-
ton. The man stopped over the diving
Norwood and rearranged his clothing.
Then with the woman's aid he dragged
the body to the edge of the roof and
pushed it over. The fall broke Burrilrs
clothes line and fractured Norwood's
skull and leg. Then after waiting To
see II the disturbance had been noted in
the building the man crept out and dis
appeared. The evidence of ali the resi-
dents of the buildings bears out this
story remarkably and in all particulars.
Burrill was the last tenant of the bnijd.
ing to come in for the night. 1t was
half past II, and just as he was going To
bed he saw Norwood coming upstairs.
The
GRAY-HAIRED MAN HAD BEEN SEEN
TO enter Kelly'S room by Mrs. Mitchell
ana Mrs. Collins. other tenants. All